March 19, 2017

The Walking Dead

By JEREMY EGNER

Season 7, Episode 14, ‘The Other Side’

“The Walking Dead” continues to creep toward a confrontation with the Saviors and may have even kicked off the initial phase of the clash at the end of Sunday night’s episode. But first there was more preparation, of both the tactical and emotional varieties.

Knives were thrown, weapons forged, amends made and forgiveness was offered. There were tears and hugs as Glenn and Abraham were mourned anew, because apparently we need to see every major character process their deaths as completely as possible.

The episode’s most significant story points were developments that had been long promised. The Saviors finally snatched the Hilltop doctor — the “other Dr. Carson” Negan mentioned a few weeks ago. And Rosita and Sasha finally began their rogue mission to assassinate Negan.

That said, the return to more Glenbraham misery and predictable events made for a mostly shrug-worthy hour with the occasional wrinkle — has Eugene truly flipped? — and almost zero suspense. The good news is, Rosita might have managed to get someone else killed with a foolhardy rush to action, while remaining alive herself with yet another reason to mope and moan. (No wait — that’s actually the opposite of good news.)

True to this season’s peripatetic tendencies, we changed venues again, landing in the Hilltop after last week’s tragic goings-on in the Kingdom.

The colony was abuzz with the war effort, as Maggie the Riveter and friends made maps and supply lists, and led the neophyte Hilltoppers through combat drills. Elsewhere, Sasha visited Abraham’s grave and Daryl sulked in the dark, unable to make eye contact with the woman he helped turn into a widow in the Season 7 premiere. (You’ll recall that his punching Negan was what provoked the Savior boss to kill Glenn.)

It’s been a rough 13 weeks for Daryl, who escaped from his Sanctuary cell but not from his cage of guilt. Like Rosita, he’s still making decisions with his pain instead of his head. Hiding from a central-casting Savior thug, Daryl nearly attacked him, and in the process jeopardized the nascent rebellion and revealed that he and Maggie were at the Hilltop. (Remember, the Saviors think she’s dead.)

Unlike Rosita, however, Daryl had Maggie around to chill him out and stay his knife. “It wasn’t your fault,” she told him later, referring to Glenn’s death. “I want to string them all up and watch them die, but we have to win. Help me win.”

The message seemed to sink in, though the last moments of the episode threw some doubt on the matter. (More on that in a minute.) Here’s hoping that Daryl is ready to be a productive member of the team again. I know the green grass has only just begun to grow o’er their graves, per a lingering shot early in the episode, but I can’t be the only “Walking Dead” viewer weary of mourning Glenn and Abraham.

Speaking of the latter, Sasha tried to offer similarly sage counsel to Rosita, but she was having none of it. Soon they were hot-wiring cars and holing up in a sniper perch, hashing out conflicted feelings about their mustachioed common interest and waiting for a clean shot at Negan. That never arose, so they decided to infiltrate the Sanctuary, and for some reason, Sasha charged in by herself so Rosita could live.

Norman Reedus on “The Walking Dead.”

Gene Page / AMC

I can’t pretend to care much about any of it. Look, “The Walking Dead” has created an impressive number of engaging characters, but Rosita is not one of them. The retroactive explanation of how she knows “how to do everything,” as Sasha put it, didn’t change that, nor was it terribly satisfying. (Roughly: She took up with a series of skilled dudes.)

It’s not her fault. Rosita has always been a marginal character, a throw-in who arrived as part of the Abraham and Eugene group. Christian Serratos does a fine job with what she’s given but it’s never been all that much — this season it’s amounted to: “Be angry and impatient.” The problem is compounded by the fact that Rosita’s relationship with Abraham was never all that moving in the first place.

Sasha’s — which lasted what, three weeks? — was even less so. But that was apparently enough to send her on a “one-way” mission to avenge his death with a surly former romantic rival.

We saw Sasha feeling the weight of her decision early on, the pull of the community at the Hilltop growing versus her desire to go after Negan. But her bonding with Rosita and angry mulling of Abraham’s fate — he “would have wanted to go out fighting” — seemed to convince her to not only “go out with a point,” but to sacrifice herself so that Rosita might live.

I didn’t buy it, but here we are. We last saw Sasha disappear into the Sanctuary as automatic gunfire crackled inside, and we’ll see next week, I guess, whether she makes it and whether her invasion is what lights the fuse on the Savior war. (Rick and friends will need those Oceanside guns first.)

Until then, we’re left to ponder a couple of questions raised in the final moments. Has Dr. Eugene Porter, Chief Engineer gone over to the other side? I theorized a few weeks ago that he was bluffing, but he sure seemed comfortable on Sunday, overseeing the fence with his grimbly-gunk, and he even turned down a chance to escape. (For the record, I’m not convinced he’s gone full Savior.)

Sonequa Martin-Green on “The Walking Dead.”

Gene Page / AMC

And who was that shadowy figure with the crossbow? We saw Daryl learn about the Negan mission, but isn’t there a certain iron-faced bow-wielder who might himself be ready to cross over to the other side?

A Few Thoughts While We Shift Our Specifics

• I’m no military strategist, but I hope the battle plan doesn’t lean too heavily on knife-throwing. It looks cool and everything, and it is roughly 1,000 percent more effective in movies and TV than in reality. But in an austere environment, knives would seem to be too precious to use as projectiles. (Or maybe they’re subject to the same magical replenishment phenomenon that keeps Daryl in crossbow bolts.)

• Also, four-pronged tridents? Interesting choice.

• “I’m a man of shifting specifics,” Simon, the budding tequila man, told Gregory. “I’m an unusual kind of creature.” He’s also the only Savior I’m ever happy to see.

• I also enjoyed the camera movement, in the early moments, from Gregory’s office through the window to reveal Rosita arriving at the Hilltop. It was a quick but clever way to orient us in the timeline of the show, indicating that all the training at the colony was happening at the same time as some of the other things we’ve seen already.

• Any guesses about how the necklace Rosita made for Abraham, last seen taunting her from Sasha’s neck, might come into play later?

• What say you? Is this the beginning of the battle? Is Eugene a turncoat? Was that Daryl or Dwight? Which liquor have you sworn off recently? Please share your thoughts in the comments.